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Kings, Crowns, and Rights of Succession: Obalufon Arts at Ife

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Kings, Crowns, and Rights of Succession: Obalufon Arts at Ife Kings, Crowns, and Rightsof Succession:Obalufon Arts at Ife and OtherYoruba Centers Suzanne Preston Blier The life-size copper mask from Ife (Fig. 1), the ancient re- and technically accomplished of all works from ancient Ife. ligious center of the Yoruba in southwestern Nigeria (Fig. Ekpo Eyo and Frank Willett date the mask to the twelfth 2), is one of the most familiar, yet enigmatic, of all African through fifteenth centuries A.D.5 works in metal.1 It was first published in 1937 by the late Like related Ife brass and copper heads (Figs. 3, 4), the king (Oni) of Ife, Adesoji Aderemi, in the journal Nigeria.2 Obalufon mask is a work of extraordinary naturalism. Ex- The king identified the mask at the time as representing cept for the characteristic Ife-style almond-shaped eyes and Obalufon II, a legendary early ruler of Ife who is credited the distinct stylization of the ears, the face of the mask with the invention of brass-casting at that center. This life- shows striking physiognomic accuracy. The naturalism of size mask was said by the king to have been kept on an this work is heightened by its fully life-size proportions, altar in the Omirin room of the royal palace at Ife ever and by the fact that it was apparently intended to incor- since its manufacture.3 A near flawless casting in ninety- porate an attached beard, for holes have been placed around nine percent pure copper,4 it is one of the most beautiful the mouth and chin areas so that a beard could be inserted. 1 This paper was previously presented at a symposium in honor of the dan, and Zaire (Thurstan Shaw, Nigeria: Its Archaeology and Early His- late Douglas Fraser held at Columbia University on April 15-16, 1983. tory, London, 1978, 72). O. Werner and F. Willett have published the The analysis shares Fraser'sconcerns with some of the more difficult ques- results of spectographic analyses of several Ife castings ("The Composition tions in Nigerian art history. As with many studies of historical art tra- of Brasses from Ife and Benin," Archaeometry, xvii, 1975, 141-163), which ditions in Africa, the ultimate answers may never be known. The sug- suggest, however, that the metal may have come from Lower Saxony (in gestions presented here, if in part conjectural, provide an alternative to the Harz region) in Europe, where mines producing related ores were being the hypotheses about Ife art currently espoused. These findings have the worked during the 12th and 13th centuries. (Corresponding evidence of additional advantage of conforming more closely with Ife oral traditions, copper being transported by caravan across the Sahara in the 11th or 12th royal succession rites, and religious beliefs. Future fieldwork on Yoruba century [1090 A.D. ? 1081 has been found in Mauritania; Theodore Obalufon ceremonies and art undoubtedly will add further insight into Monod, "Majabat al-Koubra," Bulletin de lInstitut Francais dAfrique traditions discussed here. Noire, xxvi, 1964, 1394-1402). During this period, the African Berbers My interest in Yoruba coronation arts began in 1969-1971, when I was (Almoravid and Almohad Moslems) controlled much of the Western Sa- living in the Yoruba royal city of Save (in the Republic of Benin). At that hara, the Mediterranean, and Spain. Presumably it was through them that time, considerable discussion focused on the selection and installation of metals were traded into this area, either by way of Spain (which, as R. a new Save king. My more recent interest in the topic began after viewing W. Southern notes [The Making of the Middle Ages, New Haven, 1953, the exhibit, "The Treasures of Ancient Nigeria," organized in 1980 by 42], had trade contracts at this time with eastern Germany) or through Michael Kan and the Detroit Institute of Arts and curated by Ekpo Eyo, Sicily (and the Holy Roman Empire) both of which benefited from trade Director of Nigerian National Museums. As a result of that exhibit, the ties with the Moslem world. Obalufon mask and other Ife works came to this for the first country s P. 93. D.H. Jones suggests ("Problems of African Chronology," Journal time. of African History, 11, 2, 1970: 160-176) that the average king's reign in The essay would not have been without the of a present possible help similar African societies was probably thirteen years. Forty-eight kings number of scholars. I wish to thank Rowland Abiodun, Richard Brilliant, are believed to have ruled at Ife from the time of its founding to the Henry and Margaret Drewal, Kate Ezra, William Fagg, Jeff Hammer, present. Kenyo's list (in Smith, 20) cites forty-seven kings, but since he Jack Pemberton, and Frank Willett, all of whom offered critical comment wrote a new ruler was enthroned. Allowing an average of thirteen years and shared their information and ideas. Shirley Glazer carefully checked per reign, Obalufon II, Ife's third king, would probably have lived some my sources; Sarah Travis made the drawings and Michael Kan maps. time in the 14th century. At Ife, this date is also corroborated by other secure thanks to all of them. Plates 1, 3, 4, 10, helped photographs. My evidence. First, several stylistically similar Ife works from the Ita Yemoo Dirk 11, 12, 14 were photographed by Bakker. site have been shown to date to the 12th to 14th centuries A.D. on the 2 Aderami, the Oni of Ife, "Notes on the City of Ife," Nigeria, xiixx,1937, basis of radiocarbon tests at that site (P.S. Garlake, "Excavations at Ob- 3. Among the first of the Ife works to reach the West were those brought alara's Land, Ife: An Interim Report," West African Journal of Archae- to Europe by the British colonial governor Gilbert Thomas Carter. Ac- ology, iv, 1974, 146; Frank Willett, "Radiocarbon Dates and Cire-perdue cording to Samuel Johnson (p. 647) "three of those national and ancestral Castings in Ife and Benin," Abhandlungen und Berichte des Museums filr works of art known as the 'Ife marbles' "were given to Carter in 1896 by Volkerkunde. Forschungsstelle, xxxiv, 1975, 291-300). Two cire-perdue Adelekan, the then recently crowned king of Ife. Johnson explains that heads that are close in style to the Obalufon mask have been dated by the king gave them to Governor Carter in an effort to gain a positive Frank Willett and S.J. Fleming ("A Catalogue of Important Copper-Alloy decision concerning the resettlement of Modakeke residents outside the Castings Dated by Thermoluminescence,"Archaeometry, xviii, 1976, 136- city (see nn. 68 and 69). 37) using thermoluminescent analysis to 1440 A.D. ( 65 ) and 1490 A.D. because the heads were found in a second 3Kenneth C. Murray, "Nigerian Bronzes: Works from Ife," Antiquity, ( ?85) respectively. However, xv, 1941, 73; Willett, 29. burial context, which precluded the possibility of subsidiary soil analyses, these latter dates are not completely reliable. 4Ancient copper exploitation took place in Niger, Mauritania, Mali, Su- 384 THE ART BULLETIN SEPT 1985 VOLUME LXVII NUMBER 3 1 Copper mask said to represent Ife king Obalufon II, 12th- 15th century A.D., h. 29.5cm. From king's palace, Ife. Nigeria, Museum of Ife Antiquities, No. 12 say/Old Oyo Jff7 OF . ik .: o ,o ( TOGO NIGER I 0.libu-Ode . , !!!-0 2 Map of the Yoruba area, Nigeria 10 :, '[;;:f; : ' 5 " 00 :! 7 ., ?ff 4 Zinc brass head from Ife, 12th-15th century A.D., h.29.5cm. Wunmonije compound of king's palace, Ife. Nigeria, Museum of Ife Antiquities, No. 12 3 Ife copper head, 12th-15thcentury A.D., h. 29cm. Tracesof white pigmentin cornersof eyes, black on pupils, and red aroundeyes and on neck. FromWunmonije compound of king'spalace, Ife. Nigeria, Museumof Ife Antiquities,No. 6 OBALUFON ARTS AT IFE 385 stylistically similar life-size mask - this one in terra-cotta - which was unearthed on Obalufon Street, appropriately enough, twenty feet from the site of the city's Obalufon shrine. This mask (Fig. 5), like the copper Obalufon mask, / 4 was also intended to be worn, for slits are incorporated beneath the eyes. The terra-cotta mask is different from the op copper one, however, in that incised striations cover the face, and both a headdress and stylized beard have been included in the modeling.6 Eluyemi, who published the mask, notes (p. 41) that this find does not necessarily offer conclusive proof of the identity of the copper mask with Obalufon, but it does the that the two oo? suggest possibility may ultimately be linked. Masks in any medium are ex- tremely rare among extant works from ancient Ife.7 The identification of the life-size copper mask from Ife with Ob- alufon II is further supported by the importance of metal masks in the corpus of later Yoruba Obalufon religious arts. It is quite possible that the copper Obalufon mask may have served as a prototype for this later Obalufon cire- perdue tradition. The meaning and role of the Obalufon mask at ancient Ife have not been thoroughly explored. Only three scholars have attempted to discuss the possible function of this work. Leon Underwood was the first.8 He noted that "The slits beneath the eyes indicate its use . in some sort of cer- emony." Justine Cordwell next commented that it may have had a funerary use, asserting that ". the life-size, na- turalistic portrait mask . could be worn on the head of 5 Ife terra-cottamask from Obalara'sCompound (Obalufon a living man, who. bowing and waving, thus [carried] St.), Ife, 12th-15thcentury, A.D., h.
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